AN EARTHY HEALING SCENT
1. Remove 2. Reseed
3. Restore 4. Release 5. Reseal
Once you have a week or two under your belt, you might turn to chapter 11, where you can further refine this program for your own specific gut type. A quiz will help you zero in on your core concerns, and your corresponding protocol will teach you which specific types of “dirt” (foods, supplements, and lifestyle practices) have proven the most beneficial to patients who share your type.
Many people find it helpful to start a notebook at the beginning of the Eat Dirt program. You can use your notebook any way you’d like—recording blood test results or shopping lists, or simply as a place to write your questions for yourself. At least for the first month or two, I would recommend using your notebook partially as a food journal that tracks your emotions and any physical symptoms in the same space. The objective here is to increase your awareness of
your physical and emotional reactions to certain foods (or the removal of those foods!), so you can start to become more mindful about eating. I have found this practice allows my patients to explore the habits, tastes, and preferences that can drive our food choices—as well as help them become more conscious and less reactive about the choices they are making. Be sure to include notes about your digestive habits, how your skin looks and feels, what kinds of moods you’re experiencing, or how your energy level changes—and generally how rested and fully satiated you feel. (If you’re feeling ambitious, you might keep track of the shape, color, and frequency of your bowel movements, as they can give you—
and your doctor—a tremendous amount of information about the health of your entire GI tract.)
First, let’s review the Eat Dirt program’s five steps that can restore healthy balance and welcome more beneficial microbes back into your personal microbiome.
TESTING YOUR SOIL
Are you curious about the diversity in your own gut? How will you know that these five core practices are working? Based on past experience with my patients, within two weeks you should certainly recognize changes in your digestive system, such as more frequent bowel movements. Greater energy is another sign that your inner soil is vibrant and dynamic.
But if you’d like to drill down to more detailed, specific information about your personal microbial balance, consider having your microbiome checked with a lab test. I’ve had good success with uBiome (www.ubiome.com) and recommend this biotech company to my patients.
The stool sample is easy to do and costs eighty-nine dollars. Send a sample in, and a few weeks later you receive a lab report of all the bacterial comings and goings in your microbiome.
— Step 1: Remove —
As you might recall from chapter 5, the first step in the Eat Dirt program is to eliminate the foods that are damaging your health, such as gluten, processed foods, and dairy. You’re officially on a mission to root out and eliminate all the antinutrients that are robbing your body of true nourishment. Go through your kitchen and throw out anything that appears on the list below. Half the reason people don’t stick with healthier eating habits is the temptations sitting in their own pantries. Get out a garbage bag and remove these foods:
Wheat and other grains contain antinutrients like gluten and lectin that can damage your intestinal lining and cause leaky gut. A 2013 European study found that wheat and other grains could increase chronic
inflammation and risk of inflammation by triggering leaky gut and its resultant proinflammatory immune response.
Commercial cow’s milk is modified—through the pasteurization process
—in ways that destroy vital enzymes and make lactose difficult to digest.
According to a study published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Immunology, the processing of dairy alters the casein protein, creating a molecule that resembles gluten, which produces an inflammatory response.
Sugar feeds the growth of bad bacteria and yeast, upsetting the balance and wreaking havoc on the digestive system. This causes certain microbes like staphylococcus and H. pylori to crowd out other beneficial bacteria and produce toxins themselves that damage the small intestine.
Hydrogenated oils, including canola, soybean, corn, and vegetable oils, give rise to intestinal inflammation, which is both a cause and a result of leaky gut. These oils can be found in many supermarket products labeled as
“natural.” Salad dressings, condiments, soups, and snack chips are some of the most common sources of hydrogenated oils.
GMO foods—produced from genetically modified plants like corn and soybeans—contain high levels of glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup. My friend Jeffrey M. Smith, author of Genetic Roulette, reviewed a series of studies and found troubling research linking glyphosate and other components of GMOs to leaky gut, imbalanced gut bacteria, and damage to the intestinal wall.
Toxic chemicals, commonly found in processed foods and beverages,
destroy beneficial gut bacteria. Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose alter the microbial composition in the gut. Pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, food colorings, and preservatives are among the most
dangerous foods. Municipal tap water also exposes you to excess amounts of chlorine and fluoride, which have been linked to liver and intestinal damage.
BONUS: For more healthy food swap ideas, check out the full-color replacement food list at www.draxe.com/replacement-food-list
— Step 2: Reseed —
Once you’ve eliminated the biggest offenders from your diet, your gut will get a little bit of a break. Now is a great time to bolster your beneficial bacteria by seeding your gut with microexposures of good guys.
These live bacteria, fungi, and yeasts are extremely helpful for keeping your gut healthy because they not only rally together with the commensals already in your gut, they actively reduce or prevent the growth of harmful bacteria in the
digestive system.
A soil-based probiotic supplement is the most important supplement you can take to help repair leaky gut. (See chapters 6 and 9 for a full discussion.) Unfortunately, most probiotic supplements don’t contain living soil-based organisms, so you will want to make sure you buy a brand that contains certain strains that have greater resistance and that are shelf stable. It’s important to remember you need a large diversity of probiotic strains in your gut, because each organism serves a different purpose. Certain strains enhance immune function, others protect the intestinal lining from damage, and yet others destroy dangerous bacteria.
Also, don’t forget to reseed your gut with good dirt in other ways, too:
Spend time walking barefoot outside
Shop at your local farmer’s market for fresh produce Play with your dog or ride a horse
Consume one tablespoon of raw local honey daily Dig in the soil of your garden
Swim in the ocean and freshwater lakes
Consume two servings daily of fermented foods
Eat medicinal mushrooms like shiitake and green algae like spirulina
All of these opportunities for dirt microexposures help to continuously replenish and nourish the bacteria that are sloughed off each day, keeping them well fed and happy.
MOM’S CONSTIPATION RX
I mentioned earlier how my mother was able to “move things along” after many years of dealing with constipation. What really transformed her digestive tract was following my suggestion to go on the Budwig diet, which was developed by a German biochemist named Dr. Johanna Budwig in the 1950s.
The Budwig protocol is a popular natural health regime used to combat cancer and cellular disease. My mom consumed this drink every day as part
of her holistic treatment. Here’s the recipe (which she mixed in blender):
6 ounces goat’s milk kefir (raw and organic) 3 tablespoons sprouted flax mevvval